keys with business and phone# stamped

[victorylocksmith]

where does one go about getting keys stamped with the name of the business and the contact number? Ive been trying to look into this as a way of drumming up additional business. anybody have any good leads on where to get this done as cheaply as possible? i am hoping to order A LOT of keys and hopefully i can get this service for free. or possibly get keys super dirt cheap and then just buy whatever equipment i need to stamp them myself. anybody know the process of getting the equipment together to stamp your own keys as well?

im going to put my nose to the ground and really get at this, this coming week but if anybody has any decent leads, it would help a lot.

[Sinifar]

There are several which you can get personalized keys.

Custom Key out of Arizona is the largest which makes almost any key out there. You will have to pay for the die charges and I am not sure what they are at this time.

HPC at one time thru Silca had the same program.

Jet has a custom line which you can get your own key stock.

All are in neuter bow. You need to buy quite a few at a time. Like almost 1000, but if you figure what you will use, a basic order of SC-1 / SC-4 and KW - 1 / KW10 would fill out an order quite quickly.

We have been using these for ages and although they don't normally force people to buy from you they do identify your outfit and give them a contact number if they need more.

But know this, I have had competitors come in and rekey a job with our key stock, using their key stock, then at some time in the future, it comes back to us. I have LOTS of my competitors personalized keys in the files around here.

Sinifar

[jeffmoss26]

The hardware store has purchased Jet Personaline keys with their name and number marked on them. They are standard bow, not neuter.

[Divinorum]

Have you considered getting a punch customized with your company name and phone number? I ask because I also was looking into doing the same thing you are looking to do and what options are available. I found that purchasing a customized punch and doing it your self is an option if you can front the $175 for the tool. It seems nice because you can punch virtually any key and don't need to buy specific blanks. I am however not sure how well it really works. Looks fine from the pictures but you never know until you use it yourself I guess. Does anyone have one of these? It's one of the ones you smack with a hammer not an actual press.

[2octops]

Kustom Key is one of the main players and you can order boxes of 50 after you have your die made. Absolutely great people to deal with. Their regular brass keys are a little soft but their nickel plated are fantastic. Stay away from their hardware though unless you want really cheap grade 3 stuff for REO properties.

LSDA, ILCO, JET, dang near everybody offers it.

The stamps look like a good idea but that's about all. One sideways whack with a hammer and you have half a stamp. Double tap it and you get 2 separate stamps overlapping each other. Ever tried to get those stamps straight and consistent? Usually you can manage 1 or 2 but after that it looks like a drunken monkey stamped your keys for you. Save your time and money and just but prestamped keys.

[cledry]

We switched from Kustom Key to Ilco for a couple of reasons. Firstly we had too many blanks that wouldn't slide in the locks, secondly the Ilco blanks look a bit nicer..

I had issues with Russwin F1, Medeco Sky and some Sargent and Yale sectionals with Kustom Key.

[billdeserthills]

where does one go about getting keys stamped with the name of the business and the contact number? Ive been trying to look into this as a way of drumming up additional business. anybody have any good leads on where to get this done as cheaply as possible? i am hoping to order A LOT of keys and hopefully i can get this service for free. or possibly get keys super dirt cheap and then just buy whatever equipment i need to stamp them myself. anybody know the process of getting the equipment together to stamp your own keys as well?

im going to put my nose to the ground and really get at this, this coming week but if anybody has any decent leads, it would help a lot.

My Dad ordered a stamp and we've been stamping our keys since 1970. I bet I have rec'd about 1,000 phone calls from folks to tell me that they just found my key. I can't readily attribute even one job to the stamp and when I have asked customers about my keys being stamped and also why the didn't call back the guy whose stamped key they currently have, I always hear the same thing "We never noticed it". Same for the locksmith stickers I see my competitor's using on commercial doors, with the "push" sign or "pull" sign, that will have "Fly By Night Lock" and the guy's phone #. Whenever I see one, after I'm done, I like to point it out and ask, "Why didn't you call that guy back?" Always the same answer tho, "we didn't see it". I don't know who makes these folks glasses, but I'd like to give him a tip, he has made me a lot of money

[billdeserthills]

If you wanna drum up business try an internet service. I can pm you one that cost me $200/month and paid for itself in ten days. It was like turning on a faucet and I bought their services 3 months ago, pays for itself in spades, every month. I was on page 2 online, now I'm on page 1--Makes a huge dif. Even on your own you can start going on Bing, google, yelp man, there is a million of them & you don't hafta pay most places to claim Your Listing.

[cledry]

BTW, I think coining looks better than stamping. Just how I feel.

We don't necessarily use it for advertising as we only use it on restricted keys or DND keys which are generally used on our MK systems. The reason we do this is when a customer claims their key no longer works and wants warranty service we can point out it isn't one of our keys and it is a key issue not a lock issue.

[1mrchristopher]

I have a stamp, and yes, at times it looks like I've hired a drunken monkey to stamp my keys. I just took over the restricted locksmith keyway that my mentor has had for the last 15 years, and which all of the area schools, hospital, and most of the downtown businesses use. One of the requirements is that you stamp your information on the keys, so that was my main reason for getting it. I've also ordered some small brass tags, and will order colored aluminum tags that I can stamp and throw on a keychain. Total cost of 30 to 45 cents, and everyone I've handed one to looks at it, and comments on it. It has already brought me work too - a relatively inexpensive bit of advertising. I don't use the thin wire giveaway key rings, when purchased by the thousand, reasonable quality 1" split key rings cost less than 2 cents.

From what I've read, the best way to get consistent quality stamping is to use an arbor press to hold the stamp in place, and to transfer the energy of the hammer. I have access to one, that I'm going to try out. If it works, I'll probably start scrounging to see if I can rustle one up for as little as possible. Stamping thin metal tags is easy, and really so are most brass keys, but nickel silver blanks are capable of making you curse.

I used a company I found online to make my stamp (be sure to shop around, my first quote was over $300.00, the second was less than $200) after I designed it. Here's what mine looks like, with the phone number swapped out. It isn't that I don't want to talk to all of you, I just prefer to do it here, rather than on the phone.

[Divinorum]

Thanks for sharing mrchristopher. Please let us know how the arbor press works out =)

[cledry]

The arbor press will work well, but a simple jig to hold the key and stamp so you can hit it with a hammer will give a cleaner impression. We use basically an arbor press to put numbers on keys though. We have a couple in different character sizes like this one.

http://numberall.com/presses/numbering-lettering/model-40b/prod_31.html

[billdeserthills]

HPC makes a stamp guide for smaller stamps part #HPCSA-7 and they are $180. In my shop I have spent almost 25 years legibly stamping keys freehand
with lots of initial practice time on the piles of dead keys in the bucket. I wouldn't want to stamp more than a couple hundred keys at a time & I like to keep it to 3 or less characters on a key.

[RubberBanned]

At out shop we buy lots from Jet with our info stamped in the bow. We keep those in high numbers, because even though we ask if they care what their key looks like, most like out big bowed crass keys over their standard kwikset, schlage, what have you. I'm pretty sure you need to buy a lot of them, as was mentioned, but it's not bad.

[billdeserthills]

I got a job today and the client says he found my info on the back of his key. Good to know I didn't stamp tens of thousands of keys for nothing